Insight on Creating an Inclusive Dance Community
DWC Ambassador Austin Sexton on Promoting Body Positivity
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
Click below to shop the look!
Within a culture and industry that often promotes conformity, being the one to stand out can be an uncomfortable, and sometimes even traumatizing experience. DWC Ambassador Austin Sexton knows what it’s like to experience discomfort for straying from the norm. But through adopting inclusive teaching practices, community members like Austin are helping make our local dance community more welcoming one step at a time.
Austin was born and raised in the Seattle area by parents who are dancers themselves. Her father is a dancer and her mother is one of the founding members of Spectrum Dance Theater. Austin jokes that dance, in a way, is “in her blood.” Growing up, she trained at Spectrum and later Dance Fremont throughout high school. At Dance Fremont, she was introduced to modern techniques that she fell in love with.
Following high school, Austin quit dance for a while, as having a body that doesn’t fit the “traditional” dancer mold was a source of trauma for her. She dedicated her time to pursuing vocal performance, as that was another passion of hers. During her break from dancing and training herself, she also took up teaching.
“I wanted to change the training,” Austin says of her desire to begin teaching. She desired to help change common rhetoric in the dance industry that promotes body image issues like body dysmorphia, as well as disordered eating. “I wanted to break that cycle,” Austin says.
In addition to teaching all around the Seattle area, Austin eventually co-founded a local dance company called Relay Dance Collective. The company performed seven seasons, collaborating with other local dance companies like Intrepidus Dance. After Austin got pregnant, Relay Dance Collective disbanded. Today, she works full-time at Momentum Dance Academy in Burien, Washington, where she wears various hats as a teacher, production manager, costume manager, rehearsal director, and more.
Austin has been drawn to dance time and time again because it’s a creative and emotional outlet like no other. Due to her traumatic experiences with dance early on, pursuing it as an adult and as a teacher feels as if she is “healing her inner child.” She enjoys being able to help the next generation of dancers not suffer from the same challenges she did. Austin hopes that the students she impacts through her teaching can carry on the lessons they learn throughout their life and to subsequent generations, creating waves of impact to improve the industry as a whole.
Austin's biggest challenge in dance has been comparing herself to other people. She explains that it was difficult navigating training as a dancer with a body that doesn't fit the "norm." "I had a dance teacher who refused to train me en pointe because she said I was too large," she shares. "At 12 years old, to hear something like that was super damaging."
Today, Austin makes it clear to her students that one's size does not determine one's worth or ability. "You can be a strong dancer at any size," Austin says. "You can be as strong and healthy and powerful as you want to be." There's no point comparing oneself to others when the way humans look is largely a pre-determined formula, engrained in their genetics.
"I loved seeing that there was a place for dancers that was promoting health and strength in every size because that is so foreign in the dance world," Austin says of Dancewear Center. She appreciates the efforts DWC makes to create an inclusive culture that bolsters body positivity and mental health awareness. She was inspired to become a DWC ambassador after having numerous conversations with Owner and Director of Operations Samantha Weissbach about what limited dancewear options there are for larger-bodied dancers. Feeling inspired by the work DWC was doing, Austin knew she wanted to be a part of it in some way.
Click below to shop the look!
In addition to being a DWC ambassador, in the coming year, Austin is looking forward to channeling her "heart, time, and energy" into teaching students at Momentum Dance Academy. The various performing groups at Momentum are planning on performing at several festivals, including the Olympic Dance Festival, BOOSTmeUP, All 4 1 Dancepalooza, and Dance Festival Northwest. Momentum will also host its own festival this spring called Merge NW, featuring members of the Momentum Dance Ensemble Company and youth dance companies across the Pacific Northwest. The dance academy has also begun rehearsals for its production of Coppelia this spring.
Overall, what Austin hopes to see change in the larger dance industry is a greater celebration of body positivity and a dismantling of systems of oppression, with an eye towards promoting equity. She hopes to see more teachers and directors show students and dancers that size doesn’t determine health and strength. Austin also wishes to see more opportunities become available for dancers who don’t “necessarily fit the mold.” Her desire is for these principles of body inclusivity to ripple out to other identity facets, causing instructors to teach with a greater eye towards gender inclusivity as well. Austin points out that a big part of making this change will be instructors being more intentional about the language they use in class, including not making comments about dancers’ weights and utilizing gender-inclusive words and phrases. With individuals like Austin helping train the next generation of dancers, there is ample hope for change.
